New form of scanning optical microscopy

The exponential decay of the evanescent field due to the total internal reflection (TIR) of a light beam in a prism is used to advantage in a new form of scanning optical microscope, the photon scanning tunneling microscope (PSTM). The PSTM is the photon analogue of the electron scanning tunneling microscope. The sample is placed on or forms the TIR surface and spatially modulates the evanescent field. Changes in intensity are monitored by a probe tip scanned over the surface, and the data are processed to generate an image of the sample. Subwavelength resolution in three dimensions is obtained because of the exponential nature of the evanescent field intensity. Images produced by a prototype instrument using 633-nm light and a 1-μm probe tip are shown to have a lateral resolution of about 200 nm.